Compare and Contrast
by UntoldStories113
Summary: Life as scare students was pretty sweet the second time around. (Mild spoilers for Monsters University)


**Timeline note:** Set a few months after the end of Monsters University.

* * *

Terry had always thought that the noise on the school grounds was annoying. Hundreds and thousands of students, or at least it felt that way to him, who were laughing and shrieking and keeping him from reading thick volumes on irregular verbs and stylistic devices. And they had always seemed determined to do it exactly at those times when his brother had just decided to grant him the appropriate peace and quiet for those tasks. He had despised them all for it.

Not today, though. Today, the laughter in the morning air brought a smile to his face on his way to his Scare class. The little snippets of conversation told him a myriad of stories, and sometimes, he even felt the urge to just go and join in on something that looked fun. The Frisbee players over at the dorm in particular looked like they were having a great time. Terri would probably be all for it.

Speaking of Terri…

"C'mon, Terry, playing Frisbee just once won't kill you! It's gonna be cool!"

Terry rolled his eye at his brother. "Look, I know _you've_ never had a clue how to spell 'dignity,' but there's no _way_ we're joining these idiots. Besides, we'd be late for class."

Terri just gave a sigh and hung his head. He obviously had no idea how to defy that logic. "After classes are over?" he muttered hopefully.

Terry smirked at him. "I daresay they'll be gone by then. And your dancing is worse enough; we don't need any more opportunities to make fools of ourselves."

"Hey!" Terri exclaimed eloquently and lightly punched his lower arm.

Now that his brother was not a dance major anymore, the only dancing they did, of course, was for the Dance club, so it was not even half as demanding as doing it as one of two full-time occupations. Still, Terry knew his brother missed the old classes to some degree, and he could relate to the feeling. Over the course of the last few months, he had developed the irrational wish to write a book. On what, he had no idea, but he really wanted to write something.

Still, Scaring took precedence, and he knew neither of them minded. It was the best thing ever.

On that note, cooperating with Terri was nothing short of amazing! Terry had forgotten how much fun it was to divide the workload between them and combine the results later, or to discuss lessons after they had heard them together and had actually both paid attention. And doing the same major eliminated the need to go to two different sets of classes, so they had way more free time than they knew what to do with.

He should really consider writing that book.

_Once upon a time…_

"Look, there's Squishy!"

Raising his head, Terry spotted their friend over on the main square, near the fountain, and was about to call out to him, but halted. Squishy was surrounded by a group of larger students sporting EOP jackets and it was obvious that it was not a nice chat they were having. Their youngest seemed distressed, albeit in a defiant way, while the Slugma Oozma Python guys were laughing and rudely pointing at him.

"Seriously? So you bring your _dad_ to scaring classes? What, they're too scary for you or something?"

"Not again," Terry muttered. Squishy was uncomfortable enough with his new family arrangement; there was no need for those idiots to go and make it even worse for him. When would people learn that Squishy and Don's relationship had no bearing on their scaring abilities?

_Once upon a time, there was a world in which people stopped judging others for irrelevant things._

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Terri scowl at the group. "How about we scare them off?"

Terry wholeheartedly agreed, and in his mind, he was already halfway through their sneaking routine, before something else caught his eye.

And he relaxed, even smiled a little. "Nah, there's no need."

Terri stared at him. "Come again?!"

Wordlessly, Terry raised his upper arm to point to the other side of the fountain.

His brother followed the gesture with his gaze and immediately mirrored his expression.

And they watched in satisfaction as someone else climbed onto the top of the fountain completely unnoticed and then attacked from above. There was a loud roar, and then high-pitched shrieks from the EOPs as they scrambled away like a flock of startled birds.

Art was bellowing with laughter. "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Take that, idiots!" He jumped down to ground level and did not seem to mind that he was splashing water everywhere.

To his credit, Squishy had not even flinched. He sent their purple friend a wry grin. "Thanks." But despite the outward nonchalance, he did sound a little shaken, and with good reason.

Now Terry propelled himself and his brother forward to join the other two. "Nice one, Art!" he called out. "Knight would have been impressed!"

Art perked up at the sound of his voice and, spotting the twins, raised both of his hands to wave at them merrily.

Terri put his lower hand on Squishy's shoulder in concern. "Are you okay?"

Squishy shrugged in an overly casual way. "Sticks and stones."

Terry rolled his eye. "C'mon, Squish, this is us, you can admit to it. Even though they _are_ just being idiots."

"Yeah, and I bet none of _them_ was allowed into the Scaring Program!" Terri added cheerfully, clapping Squishy on the back.

Terry sighed. "Terri, they all are," he deadpanned.

His brother turned his head around to him in surprise. "They are?"

Terry just stared at him with a half-lidded eye.

_Once upon a time, there was a world in which you could choose with whom to share your body._

…wait, that sounded kind of dirty. If he had said that out loud, Terri would have teased him mercilessly. Sometimes, Terry was really glad this arrangement of theirs did not include mind-reading.

But Squishy did not let Terri's confusion deter him. He closed his eyes and held his head high. "Nothing they say can faze me!" he declared. "None of them truly knows me!"

Terry wryly shook his head and exchanged smiles with his brother and Art. It was rather obvious whom Squishy was trying to channel. Trying, in this case, because their friend was still definitely bothered by the bullies.

And suddenly, Terry could not suppress the small pang in their chest at those thoughts. It was in moments like these that he missed Mike and Sulley the most. Sure, it took no genius to spot the confidence that Squishy had gained from Mike, or that Art had obviously gotten some special tips from Sulley for that roar, so their two absent friends had obviously left a deep impact on their lives. But that was not the same as having them here.

He knew Terri could feel his sudden depression, saw his brother's features slowly crumple, and when Squishy took a look at their faces, his own expression followed suit.

But as usual, Art seemed completely oblivious to the heavy atmosphere, even though he probably was not. "Has anyone seen Don?" he inquired mildly, shaking his fur as if he was a wet, particularly shaggy dog.

Squishy sighed. "He already entered the building; he wanted to discuss his latest essay with Professor Knight."

Terri chuckled. "I'm surprised Knight is still putting up with that."

"He's probably happy that someone is so eager to learn!" Art lectured him gently, taking Squishy's wrist and dragging him over to the School of Scaring.

Terry felt his brother follow them, so he relinquished control of the tentacles and let his mind wander.

It was not as if they really needed to learn, of course. With all the training Mike had put them through for the Scare Games, it felt as if they were way ahead of their classmates in both theory and praxis, and all five of them took shameless advantage of that fact. Somehow, after several semesters of being shunned, it felt really good to know that the attention they had experienced during the Games had not been a one-time occurrence. It was great to be admired for their accomplishments for a change, even though, of course, there was a lot of envy in it as well.

Then again, Squishy was right. Nothing anyone said should faze them.

* * *

Finding Don was not difficult. He usually picked a spot in the front row and, if possible, reserved seats for all of his brothers as well. As he had been so early this time, Terry could spot the business cards on the cushions from afar. Don himself was still talking to the professor over at the blackboard, but he waved at his friends when he saw them.

However, he need not have bothered with the seats, for when the class started, it only took Knight a minute to announce that today was a hands-on lesson, so the students all gathered in the middle of the hall in two rows and waited for him to give instructions.

This always felt a bit like their training for the Scare Games, and a few times, Terry caught himself chuckling at the thought that Knight might demand "Scary Feet!" or "Aunt Phyllis!" next.

But of course, their teacher stuck to the scares which were actually in the text book. "Cobra Hiss! Watch the brow inversion, Mr. Pauley!" That was his style - he would always pick out someone to focus on. It sure helped in keeping everyone concentrated. "All right, Zombie Snarl! Expose your gums, Mr. Gerson!" For the next command, he fixed Terri. "Himalayan Growler!"

Terry was a bit nervous, as that was one of the few scares his brother had always been struggling with a little, but Terri did remember to show the white of his eye as much as possible.

Professor Knight was surprised enough to momentarily be thrown out of his rhythm. "Very impressive, Mr. Perry!"

Terri beamed at the praise so widely that Terry could feel his joy course through their body. "Everything I know, I learned from Mike!" he declared.

Instantly, a flurry of whispers broke out among their classmates. Apparently, even the freshmen had been told about last year's Games by now.

Knight himself blinked at the announcement. "I see." And then he offered one of the smiles which were so rare during his classes. "Please give him my regards when you next see him."

If possible, Terri's smile got even wider. "I will, sir!"

Terry also caught the happy expressions on the faces of their brothers. It was Knight's attachment to every single one of his students that made them all like him so much as a teacher.

And just like that, the moment was over and their professor turned around and addressed the rest of the class again. "Doberman! More slobber, Mr. Schmidt!"

Actually, Terry was a little surprised that this conversation had gone so well, as there was no doubt that their professor had had a large impact on Terri's scaring abilities as well. But amazingly, Mike's name was one that was spoken with respect these days.

* * *

After the relative darkness of the classroom, Terry had to squint a little when they stepped out onto the bright main square again. As with all their Scaring lessons, this one had also been over way too soon. But the next lesson was Stealth, so that was fine. After the excessive training they had done for the Hide and Sneak event, they all got a kick out of Stealth.

"Way to go, Terri!" Don exclaimed on their way down the front steps. "You did so well, even good ol' Knight was astonished!"

Terri smiled. "Thanks! But your Doberman was also pretty cool! Shame he didn't focus on you for that one!"

Terry was about to remind him that it was Knight's prerogative to choose his own victims, but could not verbalize the quip before Art spoke up.

"Squishy, you're not still miserable, are you?"

When they all turned their heads around to their youngest in surprise, he looked a little alarmed, but then seemed to cave in under the concern they were all radiating. "I… that… no, that's not it. I just…" He sighed. "Even Professor Knight misses them."

There was a short, uncomfortable pause, and Squishy seemed to feel the need to explain himself. "I mean, you know, now it's like before, and I was _happy_ before, and I'm just…" He hung his head. "I feel so lonely," he whispered.

Terry was not sure what to say. It was not as if he could help Squishy get over that. He felt the same way.

_Once upon a time, there was a world in which people never had to part with their friends._

"You still got us, Squish!" Art pointed out and affectionately ruffled Squishy's hair. "And you can call them at any time, right?"

"Arthur is right!" Don agreed with a smile. "They finally got themselves a phone now, after all. How about you call them tonight and tell them our professor told us to say hello for him?"

Squishy perked up immediately. "Yeah, they're gonna be ecstatic!"

Terry threw his brother a look, but Terri did not seem to mind Squishy delivering what was basically _his_ message, so all was good.

The school grounds were a lot quieter at this time of day, as most students were still in classes or on their way to the next ones. Almost no one was on the square right now, so when Terry felt eyes upon himself, it did not take him long to find the offender.

It was that lizard guy, the one that Mike had used to be friends with. He was standing near the library, silently watching them with narrowed eyes.

Terry felt himself slipping into anger, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Terri turning his head in surprise at his sudden negativity. But he could not help it. He still vividly remembered how that guy had not shown the slightest interest in Mike's desperate pleading.

"What do you want?!" Terry snapped over, causing his brothers to turn their heads in amazement and try to find the one he was addressing.

The guy started, but recovered quite quickly. He just rolled his eyes and disappeared.

"Coward!" Terry called after thin air.

"Terry!" Don admonished. "That was uncalled for!"

"He was watching us!" Terry insisted hotly. "Probably contemplated how he could make _our_ lives miserable as well now that Mike is out of his reach!"

"That's nonsense!" Don huffed. "He's not making _anyone's_ life miserable these days. I hear he got kicked out of Roar Omega Roar."

Terry felt an unexpected bout of sympathy flare up inside of him, but he did his best to push it down. Why would he care? Apart from the Games themselves, the last thing he had seen of the guy had been his falling out with Mike at the kickoff, and the occasional lost look on Mike's face over the course of the following semester. Oh, yeah, and that episode with the stuffed animals, of course.

"Leave him be," Don added quietly. "He's just lonely."

"He wouldn't have had to be!" Terry snarled. "It was _his_ choice!" After all, _he_ could be part of Oozma Kappa right now, if he had just bothered!

Then again, Sulley would not have been with them, then, and despite everything, Terry was really glad that he had been.

"Drop it," Terri pleaded, "please."

Terry threw him a look and then rolled his eye. "Yeah, fine, whatever." Glumly, he resumed his course and felt the others fall into step beside him again.

_Once upon a time, there was a world in which all people cared about one another and helped each other if necessary._

But Mike and Sulley were not here now, so the rest of Oozma Kappa basically had no connection to this person at all. Maybe they should really just try and leave him alone. Terry was sure that if the guy waited long enough, there would be friendship and happiness for him as well.

Because things always worked out in the end, right? That was just the way it was.

* * *

"Hi, mom, we're home!"

They could hear Squishy's mother return the greeting from the basement, but the actual words were lost over the racket of the washing machine. Don excused himself and immediately went downstairs, presumably to see if he could help his wife hang up the laundry.

Art gave a huge yawn. "Man, I'm tired!"

Terry smirked. "Really? I could still run a mile."

Terri threw him a nervous look. "But we're not proving that claim right now, are we?"

Art chuckled. "Yeah, well, _you_ two are used to this much work! In Philosophy, we just sat and concentrated." He yawned again, but to be fair, Terry supposed it must really be taking its toll on their friend to have so much more physical exercise in his curriculum than before.

"Whatever, I'm calling Mike and James!" Squishy chirped and ran over to the telephone. "You guys coming?"

"I'll probably fall asleep," Art warned, before planting himself on the cushioned footstool and almost immediately doing as promised.

Terri snickered, but Squishy had not caught on to his friend's soft snores and was still talking to him. "C'mon, Art, we need to tell them Professor Knight said hi!" He was so excited that he messed up on dialing the number the first time and had to try again.

Terry smiled at him, and then turned around and started going upstairs. He, too, was dying to hear their voices, but he could call those two at any time. If they put the conversation on speaker, it tended to come down to the more outspoken members of their fraternity doing all the talking, and those were just Mike, Don, and he himself. And he felt it was necessary to let Squishy have some time alone with those two right now.

"What are you doing?!" Terri whined. He would probably have gripped the banister in protest if it had not been on the opposite side of their body. "I wanna talk to them, too!"

"You promised to finish chapter seven of The Modern Psychology of Fear today," Terry reminded him. "If we go talk to Mike and Sulley now, we'll be at it all evening, and if you don't finally do your part of our workload, we won't have the time to go over it together, and then we'll have to stay up late all next week."

His brother stared at him in disbelief. "Terry, we've never had this much free time before! There's plenty time to go and chat!"

Terry rolled his eye. "Just because we have less to do doesn't mean we can stop being studious."

Terri pouted, but stopped fighting. "And you called Mike a nerd," he muttered.

"I've never called Mike a nerd!" Terry argued truthfully and then smirked. "Even though he _did_ go overboard on the learning thing."

Reaching their room, he firmly planted themselves on the desk chair and wordlessly handed his brother the text book. Terri accepted it with a heavy sigh, but almost immediately, he put it down again. "I need my music!" he declared. "I can't concentrate without my music!" And he started rummaging through all the junk on their desk to find his earphones.

"I couldn't concentrate _with_ that music," Terry quipped, but he halted when his brother dug up a notebook and immediately discarded it.

With a quick grab, he pulled it closer to make sure it was not buried under the next wave of rubbish. A pen was also easily obtained, and with that, he was good to go.

But should he really do this?

He hesitated, weighing the pros and cons, only to find that he could not come up with any cons. It was not as if he had anything to lose by writing down a story. Should he really find out that this was pointless, after all, then he would have wasted some ink and a page in his notebook at worst. He was not sure he actually had a story to tell, or that anyone would want to hear about it even if he did, but he would not know either before he actually tried.

Besides, he needed something to pursue. Now that they were finally back in that program and things were looking all rosy and flowery for all of them, there were some mornings when he wondered why he even bothered getting up. He needed a goal. Something to occupy his time with, something to get attached to, some way to express himself.

Well, and it was not as if he had anything better to do, right?

Taking a deep breath, he set pen to paper and scribbled down those words that had been haunting him all day.

_Once upon a time…_

He knew Terri was watching him and had been for a while, felt his brother's curiosity influencing his own state of mind.

Terry stared at the words for a few moments, and then, gripping the pen harder, he furiously crossed them out again. Now that he thought about it, they sounded stupid to him. But it was not as if he had to go with the very first thing that had come to his mind.

"What are you doing?" Terri asked innocently.

For some reason, the question made him inexplicably uncomfortable. He had known that his brother would speak up eventually - astonishing that it had taken him this long! - but his own thoughts were the only privacy he had, and he was not sure he wanted to share them with the one person who knew everything else about him.

Then again, it was not as if he had much chance of hiding this. "Writing a book," he admitted without looking at his brother.

He could sense Terri's feelings instantly changing to gleeful excitement. "Coooooool! Can I read it?"

Terry half laughed before he could stop himself. "It's not _written_ yet, Terri!"

"Can I read it later?" his brother insisted and made them jump up and down on their chair in anticipation.

Terry smirked at him. "If you behave."

Now that he had finally made eye contact, he could see the huge smile on his brother's face. "Okay!" Terri chirped happily and then, apparently regarding the matter as concluded, put on the headphones he had been looking for and started listening to what Terry presumed was supposed to be music, even though through the plastic of the earpieces, it sounded more like something straight out of a torture chamber.

Terry gave a sigh. It was hard to concentrate with this ruckus going on, but he supposed it was going to be okay.

They had already braved larger odds than this.


End file.
